EN FR

Promoting inclusion of Indigenous groups in Canadian agriculture

Capacity Building
CAPACITY BUILDING PRIORITY

Infrastructure

PROJECT TIMELINE
January 2021 to September 2022
PROJECT STATUS
Fund I: Complete
TOTAL INVESTMENT
$344,272

Consortia Contribution
$94,451

Cluster Contribution
$249,821

PARTNERS

Indigenous Works

University of Saskatchewan, College of Agriculture and Bioresources

Goal

Identify opportunities to grow Indigenous-led research and innovation partnerships in the Indigenous agriculture and agrifood sector.

Project Summary

The project consisted of co-design a national Indigenous Innovation Strategy for the agriculture and agrifood sector with a focus on the themes of Indigenous food sovereignty, jobs and business growth.

The goal is to develop a five-year strategy to address gaps and barriers and explore opportunities to improve the conditions needed to increase Indigenous participation in the sector and encourage new product/market innovations, especially in segments such as plant protein.

Steps would include the development of a comprehensive profile of the current state of Indigenous participation in the sector with review of existing, and needed, documentation and available baseline; the mapping of the current state of the sector and create a new profile document; the discussion with partners to identify ways of increasing collaborations between post-secondary researchers and Indigenous businesses, research knowledge mobilizations and new product/service innovations; and the assessment of employment and business development opportunities.

Results and Impact

  • The partnership assembled a new profile of the Indigenous agriculture and agrifood sector by completing an issues analysis and identified some prescriptions on how to move forward.
  • Project organizers met with Indigenous entrepreneurs, economic development corporations and community groups and liaised with researchers who assisted with data collection and analysis.
  • The group hosted webinars, some of which involved the U.S. Intertribal Agriculture Council and American Indian Foods. Generally, the partners reached many important goals during the project and identified steps still needed to expand Indigenous engagement in the agriculture and agrifood sectors, and more specifically in the plant protein sub-sector.

Related reading